1. With the 2011-12 season in the books and with nearly two months to reflect on the season, Drew Cannon of Basketball Prospectus takes a look back at the top 100 recruits (plus) from the class of 2012 and ranks them again based on how they played as freshmen. The rankings themselves are not that surprising since we are assuming you followed college basketball last season. Instead, the interesting angle is how these guys were rated coming out of high school. Now it is entirely possible that some of the over-/underachievers may go back to their previous position, but it is instructive to remember how quickly this can change if your team has an incoming McDonald’s All-American or some lightly regarded incoming freshman.
2. In a move that won’t necessarily swing the balance of power in next season’s national title discussion, but could influence the eventual national champion Louisville picked up a rather nice late addition in the form of former Virginia Tech commit Montrezl Harrell, who backed out of his commitment when Seth Greenberg was fired. Harrell, a 6’8″ four-star power forward, joins an already solid frontline and although we doubt that he will see many minutes overall he should provide an adequate big body next season if either of Louisville’s starters is in foul trouble or is dealing with injuries. His decision to head to Louisville should come as no surprise after Greenberg’s firing as Harrell was originally recruited to his private high school (Hargrave Military Academy) by one of Louisville’s current assistants.
3. The race for Rodney Hood appears to have been narrowed down to two suitors: Duke and Ohio State. The Mississippi State transfer, who averaged 10.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game as a freshman last season, was one of the most highly coveted transfers available and appears to be taking his time making the decision as he intends to sit out the required one year transfer period. Adding a player of Hood’s size and ability would be a major addition for either program and there is the very real possibility that Hood might stick around that school for all three years that he has left. So while most fans will be focused in on the incoming freshman, Hood might be one of the bigger pawns to move in college basketball this offseason.
4. Most people would view the run Kansas had to become the national runner-up as impressive and something to cherish. Bill Self is not one of those people and he still has not watched a replay of his team’s loss on that Monday night in New Orleans. That is not to say that Self has not kept himself immersed in his work as he has had to redouble his efforts in the wake of a significant part of his staff departing to take new jobs as head coaches of their own programs. While some people may consider Self’s decision not to analyze that loss as somewhat strange it does not seem out of the ordinary to us as you do not win eight straight Big 12 regular season titles by looking at the past.
5. Got $5,000 to spare and looking to associate yourself with mediocrity? If you are then Colorado may have a basketball floor to sell you. The auction has not received a bid at the initial asking price of $5,000. This may seem strange to you given the cost of getting a new floor, which would be several multiples higher, but there is one major caveat: the floor, which was purchased in 1996, is being sold “AS/IS WHERE/IS”, meaning that you will have to transport it to wherever you would want to keep it. If you are wondering why the school does not just give it away to a local high school, it is because it is would be viewed as a violation of NCAA rules. Given all of the complicating factors the most likely home will probably be a local junior college or some Boulder resident with some extra cash and space for a basketball court.

nvr1983 (1398 Posts)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at 5:00 am by nvr1983 and is filed under morning 5, Regular Features. Tagged: bill self, colorado, d'montre edwards, duke, kansas, louisville, mississippi state, ohio state, rodney hood, virginia tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.